Antitrust Approval For Alibaba After Year-Long Investigation

China’s antitrust regulator has officially concluded its three-year regulatory “rectification” of Alibaba commending the company for its compliance efforts. This marks a significant milestone after the tech giant was fined USD 2.8 billion in 2021 for monopolistic practices.

The State Administration for Market Regulation (SAMR) praised the Jack Ma-founded company for its progress, just days after Alibaba’s Hong Kong-listed shares became available to mainland investors.

Over the past few years, SAMR has closely monitored Alibaba’s compliance with antitrust regulations, stating that the rectification process has yielded “good results.” The regulator also noted that Alibaba has fully ceased its “choose one of two” monopoly behaviour.

Looking ahead, SAMR plans to guide Alibaba in continuing to standardise operations, enhance compliance, drive innovation, and improve service quality, according to a statement translated by Google.

Jefferies analysts highlighted that the conclusion of this regulatory process is a “positive” development for Alibaba, signalling a fresh start and ensuring ongoing compliance.

This comes after the 2020 suspension of Ant Group’s stock market debut, backed by Alibaba founder Jack Ma, due to regulatory concerns. Ant Group also underwent a similar regulator-supervised rectification process, resolving most major issues by last year.